Wednesday 14 January 2015

NIA Calls on all Party Leaders to Commit to making Energy Efficiency Retrofit an Infrastructure Investment Priority in their Manifestos

With over 7m households lacking solid wall insulation, 6m lacking cavity wall insulation and over 7m having inadequate loft insulation Neil Marshall, CEO of the NIA is today calling on all party leaders to make energy efficiency retrofit of the UK housing stock a national infrastructure priority supported by additional funding from the Government Infrastructure budget and to pledge to provide support to 6m low income households by 2025.

Recent reports have highlighted the scale of the problem and demonstrated why a fresh approach and step change in funding for energy efficiency and installation rates is needed:

  • The rate of insulation installations has collapsed under the current Energy Company Obligation and Green Deal and is well behind the trajectory needed to achieve the UKs carbon saving targets according to the Committee on Climate Change.  At the current rates of installation it will take:

o   Around 150 years to insulate all of the remaining solid wall properties
o   Over 30 years to insulate all of the remaining cavity wall properties
o   And around 60 years to insulate all of the remaining lofts to the correct level

  • A recent study by leading think tank Policy Exchange identified that over 1m of the 2.3m fuel poor households in England have a family member at work and that Government funding to tackle fuel poverty is currently around £700m-a-year below that needed.
   
  • Research conducted by Cambridge Econometrics and Verco for the Energy Bill Revolution identified that a far more ambitious home energy efficiency investment programme would pay for itself and significantly boost the UK economy.  The report revealed that the programme would:

o   add £13.9bn annually to the UK economy by 2030
o   create over 100,000 new jobs 
o   deliver average energy savings of £372 and result in £4.95 billion in financial savingsper year for UK households by 2030
o   cut gas imports by 25%, boosting energy security
o   provide a £1.27 return in tax revenue for every £1 invested by Government

Neil Marshall said: "the evidence is there for all to see - the current policies, programmes and funding are inadequate and yet the benefits to Government, the economy and hard pressed householders from a properly funded energy efficiency programme are huge.  Therefore today we are calling on all political parties to go further, faster by committing to the following in their election manifestos:

  • To make energy efficiency retrofit of the UK housing stock a UK infrastructure investment priority supported by appropriate levels of funding and a robust delivery plan developed with industry.
  • As part of the programme insulate 2 million low income homes to EPC band C by 2020 and all 6 million low income homes to band C by 2025."